Release from Mental Torment

Today, I’m going to deal with one of the commonest problems of our age: the problem of mental torment. I’m going to share with you how to obtain release from this kind of torment.

We need to understand that in our contemporary culture and civilization, we are exposed to many different kinds of pressure, and they seem always to be increasing, never diminishing. Often associated with such pressures, there is a voice that speaks to your mind. Sometimes it’s even an audible voice, but many times it’s just an inner voice, and yet the things it says can be formulated in clear and specific sentences. Now, we need to understand that where there’s a voice, there’s a person behind the voice. There’s no such thing in the universe as a voice without a person. The presence of a voice indicates the presence of a person.

Many times the voice that we hear in such situations accuses us or torments us in some way. If the voice that comes to our minds accuses or torments, then we know for sure one thing: behind that voice there is a person, and that person is Satan. Bear in mind, he, Satan, the devil, is the accuser and the tormentor. When you have an accusing, tormenting voice in your mind, in your life, pressuring you, driving you, goading you, you know without further evidence that the devil is at work in your life.

Let me give you examples of common forms of accusation and torment that the devil brings against people’s minds. Each one of the examples I’ve given you I have met more than once in counseling with people who are under mental pressure and experiencing mental torment.

One common accusation is, “God doesn’t love you.” You feel rejected and lonely. Other people seem to be able to relate to God. God seems to have a plan for other people’s lives, but you’re the exception.

Or, “You’ll always be a failure.” Maybe that voice not only comes to you just directly to your mind, but it comes to you through another person, maybe through your parents, or through your life’s partner. “You’ll always be a failure. You’ve failed so many times that there just doesn’t seem to be any alternative for you in life but failure.” And there’s this voice telling you, “You’ll always be a failure.”

Or, “You’re going out of your mind.” In counseling sessions, I’ve been astonished how many people have a voice that says to them, “You’re going out of your mind.” It usually says something like this: “You know your aunt died in a mental home, and there was something strange with your grandmother, and you’re going to be the next one.” And I don’t think that it’s possible to put in words how agonizing that kind of torment is.

And then there’s the torment that’s associated with physical pain and symptoms of disease, like, “That pain is caused by cancer.” You have a pain somewhere in your abdomen. Maybe you have other symptoms, some kind of bleeding, and you’re too frightened to go to the doctor and get an x-ray or an examination, but ceaselessly, day and night, there’s this thought that’s formed in your mind: “That’s cancer. It’s cancer that’s causing that pain.” Quite possibly there’s probably very little wrong with you, but you’re just tormented and too frightened to face up to the challenge of your torment.

Now, there’s a description in the Bible of a man who underwent that kind of torment, and he summed it up very vividly in a few words that I’d like to share with you. The man was Job, and these words are found in Job, chapter 3, verses 25 and 26. Listen to what Job says:

“What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.”

That’s true of countless thousands in our contemporary civilization. “What I feared has come upon me.” You see, your fear can open the door to the very thing you’re afraid of. Probably one of the things that causes some people to get cancer is simply a morbid fear of cancer. Certainly one of the factors in people losing their minds is the fear of losing their minds. So the devil uses the fear as a lever to bring something else upon you that follows the fear.

“What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.”

Is that your condition? Does that describe you? I want you to know there is a remedy. First of all, we need to recognize the door that Satan uses to get into our lives. There are various doors, but I’m just going to suggest to you two of the commonest that I’ve seen many times in counseling sessions.

The first door that Satan uses is resentment and unforgiveness in ourselves. We are resentful and unforgiving towards some other person, usually a person that’s pretty close to us. Might be a parent, might be a husband or a wife, or a child, or a neighbor, or a minister in a church, but it’s usually somebody we’re pretty close to.

Then the other door that Satan frequently uses is rebellion, an attitude of rebellion toward God. Sometimes also towards society, toward human authority. But in its essence, it’s rebellion toward God, a refusal to submit to the righteous government of God.

Now, the remedy, first of all, is to close the door. If the door is resentment and unforgiveness, then we have to forgive the person we resent. We have to lay down that resentment, that bitterness, that hatred. Listen to what Jesus says in the Lord’s Prayer:

“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

We have no right to ask God to forgive us beyond the measure in which we forgive others. That’s the measure in which God will forgive us. Jesus comments on that:

“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

So if we want forgiveness from God, we have to forgive others. God has laid down that requirement, and He will not alter it. Remember, forgiveness is not an emotion, it’s a decision. In a sense, it’s tearing up the IOU. Somebody owes you, you’ve got the IOU in your hand, but then God has got, in His hand, a great many IOUs from you. God says, “You tear up your IOU, I’ll tear up mine.” That’s the first way to close the door: to forgive other people.

But if your problem is rebellion, and specially rebellion against God, then the way to close the door is to submit to God. Again, it’s a decision of your will. Listen to what James says in chapter 4, verse 7:

“Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

You see, you cannot resist the devil as long as you’re resisting God, because God is the only one who can give you the faith and the strength and the grace that you need to resist the devil. So if the devil’s tormenting you, the first thing you have to do is to submit to God. Lay down your rebellion toward God. Say, “God, I submit to you. You’re my Creator, you’re in command of the universe, and I submit to your righteous government, to your dealings in my life, and I’ll do whatever you require of me.” Then you have the right to take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and to drive the devil out of your life, just as Jesus did when the devil came to Him. He answered him each time, “It is written, it is written, it is written.” Jesus was submitted to God; therefore, He could resist the devil. If you will submit to God as Jesus submitted to God, then you have the right to resist the devil. You have the right to say to those voices, “I will listen to you no more. Satan, get out of my life. I’m yielded to God, I belong to God, you have no claims over me. All the claims against me were settled by the death of Jesus on the cross. I now resist you and command you to go from me.”